The Recent Apple Failures of Western 



New York. 



The causes of the faiUires of our apple orcliards are various, and 

 it is likely that many of them are not understood or even known. 

 I am satistied that the first and fundamental cause is neglect. For 

 twenty years and more, our apple growers have sown neglect ; they 

 are now reaping the harvest. 



More than half the apple orchards of western New York have 

 been turned out to grass from the time they were set ; and even 

 the grass has too often l)een sold at the city market. Land will not 

 grow good meadows and good orchards at the same time. The 

 grass takes the cream of the land. Apple trees which have been 

 fed on skim milk for a quarter of a century must be expected to 

 be lean. 



If grass has not been profitable, the orchard lands may have been 

 sown to grain, and the farmer usually complains if the grain is not 

 a good crop. The trees are not thought of as requiring ground 

 space and food. Orchardists generally consider, too, that the crop^ 

 in an apple orchard, is the fruit ; but the crop is really the orchard 

 itself, for the soil must nourish the treffs day by day, just as it 

 nourishes a crop of corn or hay. The orchard is a continuous crop 

 upon the land, whether it bears or not. The most delicate morsels 

 of the soil are taken by the wheat and oats ; and these plants appro- 

 priate the water from the rains and there is no tillage to conserve 

 soil-moisture. The apple trees feed upon the husks, and are then 

 obliged to share their portion with borers, tent caterpillars, fungi, 

 and twenty other tramps. 



Of late years, attention has been given almost wholly to these 

 tramps, by the use of the sprays. This is essential ; but it is evi- 

 dent that this is not the primary or fundamental ti'eatmeut for an 

 apple orchard. Food and moisture are the ^-rst considerations. 



